News Updates

News & Events

Campus aglow with Christmas cheer as semester wraps up

December 12, 2013 : Liberty University News Service

When students see the lights being wrapped around the trees along University Boulevard, they know Christmastime has arrived at Liberty University. During the season, students attend various activities that put them in the holiday spirit and serve as a reminder of the real reason for the season.

The Christmas season kicked off with the fourth annual tree lighting held Nov. 18 in front of Arthur S. DeMoss Learning Center. President Jerry Falwell, Jr. and his wife, Becki, joined the students in the celebration with Christmas carols, hot chocolate, and cookies.

The holiday activities kicked into full gear after a weeklong Thanksgiving break. Dressed in their favorite Christmas attire, students attended a special Christmas Convocation on Dec. 5 in the Vines Center to sing carols with the Campus Band and enjoy comedic skits by faculty and staff.

On Dec. 6, the Student Activities Office offered holiday fun for students at the annual Christmas Coffeehouse at the Vines Center, with this year’s theme “A Winter Wonderland.” The popular late-night student talent show sold out for the fourth Christmas in a row with more than 6,500 spectators in attendance to see 17 acts and eight student-produced videos. Most of the performances are available for viewing on the Liberty YouTube channel.

The School of Music hosted two concerts at Towns-Alumni Lecture Hall: “Christmas on the Boulevard Concert,” featuring the University Chorale, the school’s worship choirs, the Chamber Singers, and the Liberty University Symphony Orchestra, and “Lessons and Carols” by the Concert Choir.

A centerpiece of the holiday schedule is Winterfest, designed to ring in the New Year in spectacular fashion. The action-packed festival on Dec. 30 and Dec. 31 includes two days of spiritually energizing concerts and speakers in the Vines Center, as well as opportunities to participate in a wide range of recreational activities — from snowboarding, tubing, skiing, and skating at the Liberty Mountain Snowflex Centre and LaHaye Ice Center to indoor basketball, rock climbing, soccer, and swimming in the LaHaye Student Union, and skateboarding at the Liberty Mountain Skate Park.

Students are wrapping up the semester with final exams this week. The winter intermission begins Friday, Dec. 13, 2013, and the Spring 2014 semester begins on Monday, Jan. 13.